8-1-72: Padres' Colbert 'Mans' up

Nate Colbert set a major league record with 13 RBIs in a doubleheader and tied the record for homers in a twin bill with five as the San Diego Padres swept the Atlanta Braves on Aug. 1, 1972.

Stan Musial set a record for homers in a doubleheader with five for the St. Louis Cardinals on May 2, 1954. In the stands that day in St. Louis was Nate Colbert, who 18 years later would tie Musial's record.

By Phil Ellenbecker

  As a lad growing up in St. Louis, Nathan Colbert lived about 10 minutes away from Sportsman's Park, home of the St. Louis Cardinals, and enjoyed going to games there and taking in the exploits of players such as hometown hero Stan "The Man" Musial and Jackie Robinson, the pioneer who broke the major league color line in 1947 and once signed Colbert's glove. 

 Young Nate had justed turned 8 when he attended a doubleheader May 2, 1954, at Sportsman's. What he witnessed that day was history, as Musial set a record for homers in a doubleheader with five as the Cardinals split the Sunday twin bill with the eventual '54 world champion New York Giants.

  What the grown-up Colbert did 18 years later was make some history of his own by matching Musial's record for homers in a doubleheader as the San Diego Padres swept the Atlanta Braves on Tuesday, Aug. 1, 1972, in a twinight twin bill at Atlanta's Fulton County Stadium.

 The 6-foot-2, 205-pound first baseman not only tied Musial's mark, he did him a little better by going 7-for-9 in the two games with seven runs scored and 13 RBIs. Musial had went 6-for-8 with six runs and nine RBIs on his record-setting day.

  With those 13 RBIs Colbert set a record for runs driven in for a doubleheader, a feat matched in 1993 by the Cardinals' Mark Whiten, in Cincinnati. The previous record was 11, held jointly by Earl Averill (1930), Jim Tabor (1939) and Boog Powell (1966). Colbert’s 22 total bases broke Musial’s record of 21. 

   "The best single day ever enjoyed by a major-league hitter," Bob Carroll termed it in a 1982 article for The National Pasttime, a publication of the Society for American Baseball Research. 
   Those 13 runs Colbert brought in Aug. 1 amounted to 11.7 percent of his 111 RBIs in 1972, which Carroll noted set an all-time record for portion of a team's runs driven in -- 22.75 percent of the Padres' 488. San Diego had the worst run total in the National League and third-worst in the major leagues.

  The next-closest to Colbert in percentage of his team's RBIs was Wally Berger with 22.61 percent in 1935, when he drove in 130.

  Colbert's date with destiny was no sure thing. The night before Aug. 1, 1972, he'd injured a knee in a collision at home plate and was listed as doubtful for the games against the Braves. 

  “I didn’t sleep well,” he said. “I knew there was no way I could play both games. My back hurt, I felt down.” But with the chance to crank uphis right-handed bat in the homer-happy haven of Fulton, known as "The Launching Pad," Colbert asked manager Preston Gomez to be penciled into the lineup. And then went to work. 

  Colbert was 4-for-5 with five RBIs, three runs scored and two homers as the Padres romped to a 9-0 victory in the opener. And then there was no way he was sitting out the nightcap. He just kept on mashing with three homers, eight RBIs and three runs scored in a 3-for-4 performance as the Padres made it a sweep with an 11-7 victory.

  Colbert was geared up from the start as he unloaded a three-run homer off Ron Schueler in the top of the first inning of the opener. Two innings later he singled in another run to end Schueler's day, and Clarence "Cito" Gaston followed with a two-run homer off new pitcher Mike McQueen as the Padres' lead grew to 7-0.

  Colbert singled again the next inning and went deep again leading off the seventh with McQueen still in, giving San Diego an 8-0 lead, and a double by Gaston and triple by Gary Jestadt made it 9-0.

  George Stone was finally able to cool off Colbert when he struck him out looking leading off the ninth.

  The beneficiary of all of the thunder from Colbert and Gaston, although he didn't need that much, was Clay Kirby, who pitched a complete-game seven-hitter with seven strikeouts and two walks as he improved to 8-11.

  Schueler fell to 4-5 as he gave up six runs, all earned, three hits and four walks in his two-inning stint.

  The Padres piled it on in the nightcap, building a 7-0 lead through two innings and 9-1 after 7 1/2 before the Braves' bats woke up.

San Diego Padres coach Bob Skinner holds up five baseballs, signifying the five balls Nate Colbert, right, hit out of the park Aug. 1, 1972, which tied a major league record for homers hit in a doubleheader.

  Colbert had the big blow early with a grand-slam homer off Pat Jarvis to cap a five-run second. He'd walked and came around to score on Gaston's single the inning before against starter Tom Kelley.

  Jarvis got Colbert to ground out to third in the fourth, but Colbert found the seats again in the seventh against Jim Hardin with Larry Stahl aboard. And then for good, history-making measure, again with Stahl on base, Colbert uncorked a first pitch from Cecil Upshaw and hit this third homer of the game in the ninth, rounding out the Padres' scoring to make it 11-7. Stahl went 2-for-3 in the game with four runs scored.

  Colbert said he was just trying to meet the ball against Upshaw, a pitcher who'd always given him trouble.

  “I was shocked when I hit it,” Colbert said. “I couldn’t believe it when I saw it go over the fence. It was unreal. When I rounded second base, umpire Bruce Froemming said to me: ‘I don’t believe this.’ I told him: ‘I don’t either.’ "  

  Ed Acosta got the win for San Diego, giving up five runs, all earned, and nine hits over six innings as he improved to 3-5. He struck out three and walked two. Al Severinsen got his first save of the season with mop-up shutout relief in the ninth. It was also the last save of his three-year career that ended in 1972. (He had eight saves the season before.) The Braves had threatened mildly with two runs in the eighth before Mark Schaeffer came on to get the final out.

  Kelley fell to 5-7 after giving up four runs, three earned in his 1 1/3 innings. He gave up only one hit but walked five.

  Mike Lum went 3-for-4 for the Braves with two runs scored. Two of the Braves' bigger bats who'd each gone 0-for-4 in the first game shrugged off the collar in the nightcap. Darrell Evans went 2-for-4 with two runs and two RBIs, while Dusty Baker was 2-for-4 with two RBIs.
  However, Hank Aaron -- the biggest bopper in franchise history, two years from knocking off Babe Ruth as the all-time home run champion -- was going for an oh-for for the day before he singled in the eighth inning of the second game. That made The Hammer 1-for-5 and 1-for-7 on the day after going 0-for-2 and then taking a seat in the opener. And another big stick for the Braves, 1974 National League batting champ and .306 lifetime hitter Ralph Garr, was 2-for-7 in the two games.

 Colbert, a shining light for the Padres in their first few years of existence after joining the NL as an expansion team in 1969, was working on a career year in 1972 that included those 111 RBIs that set a career high, fourth in the NL, and 38 homers, second in the NL and tied for his best. He batted .250 and finished eighth in MVP voting.

  “How Nate ever knocked in 111 runs that otherwise dismal season has puzzled the experts ever since,” Padre statistician Mil Chipp said. 

  The 1972 Padres finished 58-95 -- 4-7 under Gomez and 54-88 under Don Zimmer, in the first of four managerial jobs for the baseball lifer who was involved in the game until his death in 2014. Gomez had been the Padres' manager since their inception before being fired. San Diego finished sixth and last in the NL West -- their fourth of six straight cellar seasons to begin their tenure in the National League. Only the 59-97 Philadelphia Phillies and 54-100 Texas Rangers in the American League had worse winning percentages in 1972.  

  The 1972 Braves finished fourth in the NL West at 70-84, one of several subpar seasons they endured in the 1970s after winning the West in 1969, the first year of divisional play after four teams were brought into the league.

  As for Colbert, he never rose to such heights again. He dropped to 22 homers and 80 RBI with a .270 average in 1973, and he was out of baseball by 1977 after 10 years, his career prematurely ended by chronic back problems. He finished with 173 home runs, 520 RBIs and a .243 batting average. He still holds the Padres’ career record for home runs (163).

 Colbert was signed by his hometown Cardinals out of high school in 1964 and then moved on to the Houston Astros organization before blossoming with the Padres, who made him their ninth pick and 18th overall in the 1968 NL expansion draft.

  A three-time All-Star, he averaged 30 home runs and 85 RBIs from 1969 to 1973, prompting Gomez to compare him to such contemporary sluggers as Willie McCovey and Willie Stargell.

  And on an August day in 1972, Colbert was the mightiest thumper of them all.

Sources:

Play-by-play: https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1972/B08012ATL1972.htm and https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1972/B08011ATL1972.htm  

RBI records: https://www.baseball-almanac.com/recbooks/rb_rbi1.shtml and https://ourgame.mlblogs.com/nate-colberts-unknown-rbi-record-847e6d0fa361  

Colbert biographical information: https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/ad0e204c  

 Additional background came from various sources on the Retrosheet and Society for American Baseball Research's Biography Project websites, as well as baseballreference.com.